Abstract: Jean Lewis Miller was a Bay area feminist lesbian activist and Berkeley Public Library employee. Her papers largely cover
political and legal struggles with the city of Berkeley. The collection also contains suffragist literature, unpublished manuscripts
and personal documents.
Researchers who would like to indicate errors of fact or omissions in this finding aid can contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections.

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the
UCLA Library. These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This
partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize,
preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.

Biography/History

Jean Lewis Miller was a Bay area feminist lesbian activist. Miller was an early participant in Women's Liberation as a member
of Women of the Free Future and Women in Solidarity. She worked part-time as an employee of the Berkeley Public Library. In
1971 she was fired for writing a published article in the Berkeley Post to expose sexism and racism in the library. After
25 women marched on the Board of Directors meeting, she was reinstated, and dedicated herself to serving women's needs within
the library through her self-created Women's Project. This group was later discontinued by the library after her formation
of the Berkeley Women's Affirmative Action Union. After public protest, Miller became the first person arrested at a City
Council meeting. Thereafter, she endured a nine day hunger strike in Santa Rita, was jailed a second time, was fired and jailed
a third time; from which charges she was acquitted, but jailed for contempt of court. Jean filed a lawsuit in federal court
charging sex discrimination and political retaliation in 1974. Years later, the case was dismissed. In 1980, Miller died after
a two month battle with cancer.

Scope and Content

The Jean Miller papers consist of documents relating to her political struggles with the city of Berkeley over affirmative
action, sex and race discrimination. Included are legal documents, suffragist literature, college research papers, letters
to her son, materials relating to Inez Garcia, and unpublished manuscripts on motherhood and women's sexuality.

Contains materials related to Jean Miller's case, concerning her suspension and termination from the Berkeley Public Library
due to her refusal to give up work on an approved women's library access project; statements, correspondences with Mary Morgan,
depositions.

Box 1, Folder 9

Legal Documents (2 of 2).1973-1977.

Physical Description: Legal briefs, printed documents, letters

Scope and Content Note

Contains materials related to Jean Miller's case, concerning her suspension and termination from the Berkeley Public Library
due to her refusal to give up work on an approved women's library access project; statements, correspondences with Mary Morgan,
depositions.

Box 1, Folder 10

Quotations (1 of 2).No Date.

Physical Description: Printed and handwritten documents

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript sheets of quotations about women and men, especially concerning the status of women.

Box 1, Folder 11

Quotations (2 of 2).No Date.

Physical Description: Printed and handwritten documents

Scope and Content Note

Manuscript sheets of quotations about women and men, especially concerning the status of women.

Contains: book review, Voltaire, 1694-1778; Germany and Nazi Totalitarianism; Carl Becker and Relativism in History; Ode to
a Grecian Urn; Will Power; I was born...; Linda, being a dull and unimaginative person...; Both Desdemonia and Othello...;
An air of oppressiveness...; The fellow is exceptionally honest...; Qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un bon amant?; A good lover...;
...mass conformity; Self-esteem; My parents

Box 2, Folder 3

Academic Research Papers (2 of 2).Circa 1964-1967.

Physical Description: Printed essays

Scope and Content Note

The Naked Female; The Religious Need; Chin P'ing Mei; A Critique of the Golden Lotus; book report: Jesuits in China...; The
Constitutional Rights of the Negro Protest Movement; The Meaning of Education; L'influence de Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Box 2, Folder 4

Unpublished Manuscripts and Reports.No Date.

Physical Description: Printed and handwritten documents

Scope and Content Note

Contains: Motherhood is Man-Made, a Sacred-Cow, dedicated to my friend, Brenda; (paper on heterosexuality, contraception and
birth control); Report on the Study of the Cataloguing of Books About Women; More on Improving Library Service to Women; Interview
with Jean Miller on Books, Libraries, and Women, Sexism in Library; What's Wrong (with the Women's Liberation Movement); The
Theory of Monosexual Dominance (a review)

Box 2, Folder 5

Bibliographies.No Date.

Physical Description: Printed and handwritten documents

Scope and Content Note

Contains bibliographies on "The militant suffrage movement in Great Britain," as well as a list of books about women and feminism.